Land tenure formalisation and perceived tenure security: Two decades of the land administration project in Ghana

Ghana’s Land Administration Project (LAP), initiated in 2003, aimed to enhance certainty regarding land rights. This paper explores landowners’ perceptions of tenure security in Ghana using micro-level data from two waves of the Ghanaian Living Standards Surveys in 2008 and 2017. This data was studied to see the linkages between land title formality and perceptions of tenure security, measured by landowners’ perceived ability to sell or use their land as collateral. This is complemented by analysing government policy documents and appraisal reports from independent organisations, contributing to ongoing research on the formalisation-security link in Ghana and other African countries. The results indicate that those with formal titles are more likely to perceive their land ownership secure. However, in some regions customary systems persist in parallel with perceived security. These regional nuances highlight the complex factors influencing perception of tenure security. For policy, these findings emphasise the need to consider contextual peculiarities and expertise when assessing the compatibility of customary traditions with formal titles and finding solutions for potential coexistence.